Just a few comments, it appears by all practical interpretations of historical evidence, that species other than humans are not capable of thought. What we now know is that even though humans are in control of their environment, underlying this is a subtle evolution whether it is social, cultural, and even genetic. If anyone who has ever studied phylogeny they may be familiar with the term 'parsimony'. Parsimony suggests that without the intervention of some form of extrinsic factor, the most parsimonious path is taken (equivalent to the path of least resistance, or the natural evolutionary steps required to reach a certain outcome).Because animals, single celled organisms respond significantly to their environment, because they lack the capacity to think it could be said that at the point of creation of the UNiverse, whatever steps were necessary to place the Earth at exactly the correct distance from the sun, whatever steps were necessary for a pool of amino acids to form to begin the basis of life, whatever steps were necessary for all random and co-inciding events to take place for humans to appear, they would have been unaffected and unchanged by anything that did not have the capacity to think, and for this reason our evolution as far as we can gather is the most parsimonious result of the beginning, or as stated the Big Bang.Because we have the capacity to think that perhaps changes everything. As you mentioned about sub-atomic particles, examples being quarks, muons, nuons etc.Max Planck described quite interestingly who when he received his Nobel in Physics works on Atom; as he accepted his nobel prize…“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science to the study of matter, I can tell you as the result of my research about atoms this much: there is no matter as such… All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”

Interestingly someone once described these sub-atomic particles as such:"These particles are so interesting that not only are they stranger than we think they are, they are stranger than we THINK".Giving credence to the fact that in research of these particles, the particle behaviour would change based on the thoughts of the observer.

Perhaps this is why Albert Einstein stated:“The most fundamental decision that you have to make in your life: Do I live in a friendly or a hostile universe?”

Additionally, it is interesting that some research suggests that the Universe began not as an explosive imperceivable event, but arose out of vibration (the essence of sound):The latest research in astronomy validates the creation of the universe as beginning with this cosmic sound.

“Three independent teams of astronomers yesterday presented the most precise measurements to date ofthe infant universe as it existed approximately 14 billion years ago, exposing telltale reverberations theycalled "the music of creation." The results represent a significant advance in scientists’ efforts to understand what happened in the initial split second of cosmic creation and how the universe has evolved since, researchers said. …the cosmic microwave background, is the cold echo of the hot Big Bang fireball. Reaching Earth from all directions, it is enfeebled and stretched into the microwave range by the expansion of the cosmos. Scientists say that 1 percent of the static picked up on a home TV antenna is the echo of the Big Bang approximately 15 billion years ago. Astronomers first detected this background glow in 1965, using a ground-based radio telescope. But the radiation appeared bafflingly uniform and featureless in contrast to the present-day universe — all lumpy with stars and galaxies. Russian and American theorists soon predicted that the seeds of this lumpiness should show up in what mathematicians call a "harmonic series" of fluctuations imprinted on the embryonic glow. The primordial cosmic soup "is full of sound waves compressing and rarefying matter and light, much like sound waves compress and rarefy air inside a flute or trumpet," said Paolo deBernardis, Italian leader of the international collaboration known as BOOMERANG, or Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics, another high-altitude balloon project presenting new analysis.

Washington Post

Finally, in regards to the complexity of the human organism, it is quite possible that because PAIN is in the BRAIN, that it is the complexity of the organism that leads to our senses. Is it necessary for a structure to evolve, and become so complex that only then can this bundle of atoms and compounds and particles interact in such a way that they give meaning to the Senses? Or is there something underlying all of this:

The modern scientific view that consciousness is within everything has been expressed by E.H. Walker:

“Consciousness may be associated with all quantum mechanical processes. The uniqueness of our consciousness lies in the fact that it is a part of a logic machine, which in turn is the brain of a particular kind of physical system, a living organism. That is, the terms “life”, “thought”, and “consciousness”, properly defined, are separable. An organism does not have to be conscious or capable of thinking in order to be alive. A brain does not have to be conscious to be capable of “thought” (we are using the term in the restricted sense of “data processing”). Only the higher organisms have brains for data processing, and only under very special conditions, when a large part of the data processing functions of the brain is handled by an irreducible quantum mechanical process, does the organism become a conscious, thinking being.

Any of these attributes may exist independently of the others, or in conjunction with only one other. A non-living computer that is capable of both thought and consciousness would be a real possibility. Consciousness may also exist without being associated with either a living system or a data processing system. Indeed, since everything that occurs is ultimately the result of one or more quantum mechanical events, the universe is “inhabited” by an almost unlimited number of rather discrete conscious, usually non-thinking entities that are responsible for the detailed working of the universe. These conscious entities determine (or exist concurrently with the determination) SINGLY the outcome of each quantum mechanical event, while the Schrödinger equation (to the extent that it is accurate) describes the physical constraint placed on their freedom of action COLLECTIVELY.”

In the latter decades of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st, we are experiencing the continuing explosion of information sharing and group consciousness on this planet. A network of computers, televisions, radios, electronic cables, optical fibers, and satellites links our entire planet electronically. Ideas and images that affect us all are instantly transmitted and shared with others of our species all over the globe. We have even begun to acknowledge and connect to the consciousness of other species, as John Lilly’s research with dolphins has shown.

The group subconscious described by Carl Jung is now openly reflected in a visible planetary group consciousness. The age of blind faith is over. The age of belief without knowledge died with the advent of instantaneous global information sharing. We have irrevocably entered the age of conscious knowledge, experience, and responsibility.

I think that regardless of what we know or will know, at least we can make efforts to live harmoniously with each other. Regards.